The Dictionary of Endurative Actions (TDOEA) is an ongoing writing and collection project that was started in October 2009. In response to our shared interest in opening up or reinvigorating an investigation of endurance in performance and everyday life, we have given ourselves the task of systematically assigning an endurative action to every word on dictionary.com. TDOEA is a custom 24-drawer card catalogue attached to a standing desk, where entries will be written by hand on three-by-five inch cards and filed alphabetically.

Each day, one of the two of us will pick a word from dictionary.com, go to the desk, write an ideal action for a word left there the previous day, file it, and leave the newly found word on the desk for the next day. This activity will go on until we have assigned an ideal action to every word listed in dictionary.com. Action is considered broadly, and might be anything: instructions for actions, descriptions of imaginary events, documentation of actual events, etc.

The Dictionary of Endurative Actions is a resource open to the public. The public may use it as a reference, and also participate in the process of generating entries. Appointments to visit it in our studio can be made through our website, www.cupolabobber.com . From time to time, we hope to be able to loan it to institutions or individuals capable of maintaining regular visiting hours.

Inspired by the Flaubert characters Bouvard and Pecuchet, to start the accumulative action of the dictionary we began by searching the internet for the ideal desk/catalogue design, which we intend to copy. Copying it will necessitate internet searches for many more ideals: ideal wood species, tree felling process, tree milling, wood drying, paper making, construction, pen making, ink making, the ideal way to...

Our desk design search met with success. While we search for the ideal tree to cut down, we will prototype the desk using whatever we have in our studio. The desk we will copy is: “The Davinci Desk.” Described by standup-desks. com as “a combination of our two most popular style desks. The Virginia Woolf and the Winston Churchill come together to create even more functionality and style.” [End Page 2]

Cupola Bobber is a collaborative duo making performance and other things in their studio in Chicago, since 2000. Their most recent performance, Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me, commissioned by P.S. 122, Links Hall, and the National Performance Network, will be touring the UK in February/March 2010. More information at www.cupolabobber.com .

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